Tunisia’s Gabès Festival Taps Into Regional Tensions For 2026 Edition With Oliver Laxe, Kaouther Ben Hania & Hend Sabry

Oliver Laxe’s Moroccan desert rave-set drama Sirāt closed the eighth edition of the Gabès Cinema Festival (Gabès Cinéma Fen) over the weekend in the presence of the Spanish French director.

Afef Ben Mahmoud, who marked her inaugural year at the helm of the festival this year, tells Deadline that Sirāt was the first film that came into her mind when she was first proposed the role of festival director.
 
“There’s something in the landscape of Sirāt which echoes with that of Gabès, even if it was shot in Morocco,” she says.

Situated on an Mediterranean oasis a four-hour drive south of the Tunisian capital of Tunis, Gabès is a place of contrasts, mixing natural beauty with heavy industry.  
 
“It’s a very particular. It’s the south. There’s the sea, the oasis, and at the same time, the industrial side,” says Mahmoud, noting the area has hosted several films shoots thanks to the landscape and light.
 
“It’s also an extremely engaged city by comparison with the rest of Tunisia… and this has fed into the festival which is known throughout the Arab world for its activism,” she continues. “We’re really in the realm of cutting-edge, politically engaged cinema, cinema that’s proactive, that wants to change, that wants to raise awareness.”

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